Luciano recently posted the same request for advice on the NEOORN
list-serve. I suggested he joined Nature Recordists and posted the same
message.
I am forwarding below the answer that I sent to NEOORN. So far as I
remember there has been little discussion on Nature Recordists about the
design of a data base for recordings.
Jeremy
>Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 19:22:59 -0300
>To: Bulletin Board for Ornithologists working with Neotropical Birds
><>
>From: Jeremy Minns <>
>Subject: Re: [NEOORN-L] Bird Sound Archive
>Luciano,
>
>I have a data base of sightings and sound-recordings of Brazilian birds.
>This includes 90.000 sightings and details of over 15.000 cuts of
>recordings made by myself and two other Brazilian recordists. About 9.000=
>of these cuts are stored in digital form on my computer.
>
>I have built up this data base over about eight years and have benefited
>greatly from the expert advice of Sjoerd Meyer, whose Birds of Bolivia
>you certainly know, and from the postings of the Nature Recordists
>list-serve. My data base may not be great shakes technically but it
>certainly enables me to locate and play recordings quickly.
>
>The recordings were made on analogue cassette and R-DAT recorders. The
>analogue recordings are digitalised by transferring them to my DAT
>recorder (I have not been successful in transferring analogue recordings
>directly to the computer because of problems with RF interference, perhaps=
>because my house in S=E3o Paulo is close to a number of radio transmitters=
;
>this does not seem to be a general problem). I used then to transfer the
>recordings in digital form from the DAT recorder to my computer via a
>Zefiro ZA2 digital sound card. When I had to change the computer's
>operating system to Windows XP the ZA2 card would no longer work so, as a=
>temporary expedient, I am transferring recordings to the computer's Sound=
>Blaster sound card via the analogue line-out on the DAT recorder, with
>some loss of quality. I am about to install a new digital sound card which=
>will eliminate this analogue to digital back to analogue and again to
>digital nonsense. A wide selection of digital sound cards is now
>available. I use Cool Edit 2000 to transfer the recordings to the computer=
>(and for many other things too) and most recordists that I know use this
>software as well.
>
>My data base was developed by me in Microsoft Access. Each sighting record=
>contains (inter alia) the following information:
> Date and time
> Species
> Subspecies
> Observer
> Site (in a separate table the co-ordinates, municipality, state
> etc. for each site)
>and, if arecording was made,
> Tape#
> Side
> Cut#
> Type of vocalisation
> Recording quality
>and, if the cut is archived on the computer,
> Sound file name
>
>In a Remarks field I include a lot more information, such as sex,
>behaviour, and background species - much to Sjoerd=B4s disgust as he says,=
>quite rightly, that most of this information should be in the data base in=
>a structured form.
>
>I am in the process of adding
> Photo# (if the bird was photographed)
> Specimen# (if the bird was collected; in the Collections table
> there will be all the information about the specimen)
> Nest# (if a nest was collected; details of the nest in the Nests=
> table)
>
>Access is very easy to use and flexible and quickly answers all the
>questions that I need to ask the data base. If, to take an artificially
>complex example, I want to list the furnarids I have recorded in the state=
>of Minas Gerais in the month of May, it takes me only a minute or two to
>prepare the query and the answer comes within seconds. I then have
>immediate access to whichever of these recordings are among the 9.000
>sound files stored on the computer's HD. Cool Edit displays these sound
>files as a sonogram or a wave form.
>
>I keep digital copies of all the tapes and of the cuts stored on the HD,
>using CD-Rs burnt on the CD burner that came with my computer. Most of the=
>members of the Nature Recordists list appear to do the same, though one or=
>two of the more sophisticated ones archive on MO (magnetic-optical disks).
>
>I would be happy to give you a copy of my data base with some sample data=
>for you to play around with to see if it can be adapted to meet your
>requirements. I think you will have to develope your own data base, either=
>from scratch or starting with an existing one, as you are unlikely to find=
>anything ready made that has all you need.
>
>I suggest you join the Nature Recordists lists and send your NEOORN
>posting to them as well. They have a wealth of knowledge in this area.
>
>Jeremy
>
>
>At 12:44 17/01/03 +0400, you wrote:
>>Neoorners,
>>
>>I am presently working at the Ornithological Collection of the Brazilian
>>Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) with Mario Cohn-Haft, and we
>>are about to start working in the implementation of an archive of Natura=
l
>>Sounds. So far, what we have is a rather large number of personal tape
>>recordings of Amazonian birds and the will to have all our recordings in =
a
>>database and actually available to other Institutions/researchers.
>>Of course, we want to do things right from the very beginning, and a numb=
er
>>of questions rose, concerning the implementation of an useful Archive.
>>Among these questions are the following, and we would love and appreciate
>>any feedback on the subject.
>>
>>1- what is the best method to archive tape recordings (most of our
>>recordings have been done in normal analogue tapes).
>>- Our first approach would be to store them in cds (after digitalizing th=
e
>>sound with something like Cool Edit). Anything wrong with that? Anything
>>better than Cool is available for PCs?
>>
>>2- Is there any serious equipment that we may need for the task, or a goo=
d
>>PC with a cd burner should be enough? (Any sound card specifications??)
>>
>>3- Is there any proper (and specialized) database program that is advisab=
le
>>to use? In the future we would like to be able to cross all the recordin=
g
>>info with the specimen collection, a GIS, distribution maps, etc.
>>
>>Well, these are only some of the questions, but I am sure a zillion more
>>will rise soon. Please, feel free to comment and give any advise.
>>Looking forward to hear any eco,
>>Gracias y saludos,
>>
>> Luciano
>>
>>Luciano Nicol=E1s Naka
>>Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amaz=F4nia
>>Curadoria de Aves =AD Cole=E7=F5es Zool=F3gicas.
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